These cattlemen and bonafide settlers are the men who seek to 

 protect the antelope, they kill very few of them and the antelope on 

 their range do not seem to be so wild. It is these men that created 

 the idea of Federal protection for antelope and other game in their 

 country, and will offer no objections whatever, providing their rights 

 will be protected and present conditions not materially changed. The 

 sheepmen are quite stirred up over our being in the country and are 

 seeking means to fortify their position and further entrench themselves. 

 The latest advice was that they intended to lease all available school 

 sections, but it does not appear that such a move would be of much 

 benefit to them, especially as the school sections are widely scattered 

 and they would be obliged to cross some cattleman's holdings to reach 

 them, and moreover, many of them are without water. 



On this proposed reserve for the antelope, there are a number of 

 other species of wild life. The sage grouse are fairly abundant; we 

 saw numbers of them each day, and several hens with broods of active 

 chicks. In the northwestern townships are a number of black tail 

 deer variously estimated at from eighty to one hundred and fifty, and 

 until a few years ago a band of eleven mountain sheep ra!:^T;ed the bluffs 

 and canyons along the Owyhee River, the last one — an old doe — was 

 killed about three years ago. Along the streams can be found both 

 beaver and otter in fair numbers. Of the smaller animals there are 

 quite a variety, viz., the porcupine, mountain marmot, badger, ground 

 squirrel, cotton tail rabbit and the snowshoe rabbit. There are some 

 coyotes, and in the Juniper mountains bob cats and an occasional 

 cougar. There are, also, some rattlesnakes, bullsnakes, lizards and 

 horned toads. 



The roads in this country are very few and mostly trails. There 

 is a fairly good auto road from Grandview to the Mud Flats shear- 

 ing corral; this is necessary for the transportation of wool to the rail- 

 road at Mountain Home. From Mud Flats on down, it is more or 

 less of a primitive wagon trace, its course meanders through the 

 meadows along the streams, up and over steep hills and rimrocks, 

 across sloughs and bridgeless streams, and finally ends in Mr. Brace's 

 corral. It is by no means an auto road, and our car was the second 

 that had ever been over it, the other was a surveying outfit. Most of 

 the people in this country travel on horseback, wagons are used prin- 

 cipally to freight in supplies for the ranchmen. There are a number 

 of trails leading in various directions. The cattle trail goes north to 

 Murphy, the nearest shipping point where a branch of the Oregon 

 Short Line comes down from Nampa. Another road from Brace's 

 Ranch runs to Fairylawn, where the Post Office is located. This town 

 is in the northwestern corner of the proposed reserve, a distance of 

 about thirtv-five miles from Brace's. The old emigrant trail from 

 Elko, Nevada, to Silver City, Idaho, runs in a northwest direction about 

 five miles south of Mud Flats and close to the northeastern corner of 

 proposed reserve. 



No opportunity should be lost in creating this preserve at the 

 earliest possible moment; most of the settlers are in favor of it and 



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